Method and apparatus for crowdsourcing the location of mobile terrestrial transports

ABSTRACT

Techniques are provided which may be implemented using various methods and/or apparatuses in a mobile device to crowd source mobile terrestrial transceiver identifiers associated with mobile terrestrial transports. In an embodiment, transceiver identifiers associated with mobile terrestrial transports may be identified and tracked through the detection and measurement of signals transmitted by mobile terrestrial transceivers received either by mobile devices located on the mobile terrestrial transport or through the detection and measurement of transient signals transmitted by passing mobile terrestrial transceivers received by stationary or near stationary mobile devices. The identity of detected mobile terrestrial transceivers and their locations and time observed may be uploaded to a server. The crowdsourced location and schedule information for the mobile terrestrial transports may be downloaded to mobile devices to provide transportation information such as arrival times, departure alerts, targeted stop alerts and other transport related functionality.

REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.15/794,217, filed Oct. 26, 2017, entitled “Method and Apparatus forCrowdsourcing the Location of Mobile Terrestrial Transports,” which isassigned to the assignee hereof and expressly incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to electronic devices, andmore particularly to methods and apparatuses for use in or with a mobiledevice to facilitate passive location of transport vehicles such astrains, buses and planes.

2. Information

Crowdsourcing may be utilized to locate transceivers in a fixedterrestrial location; however, location information for mobileterrestrial transceivers is generally considered unreliable. Thecrowdsourcing techniques rely on measuring signal strength, timing orcombination thereof of terrestrial transceivers from a known location.When this information is measured from a plurality of locations, thelocation of the terrestrial transceiver may be determined. Observedterrestrial transceivers that appear to move location are discarded asunreliable location references. For example, APs running on wirelessphones, do not provide an accurate, reliable location reference becausethe location of the phone at any point in time may vary and is generallyunreliable.

SUMMARY

Some example techniques are presented herein which may be implemented invarious method and apparatuses in a mobile device to crowd source mobileterrestrial transceiver identifiers and locations associated with mobileterrestrial transports. In various embodiments, transceiver identifiersassociated with mobile terrestrial transports and the locations of themobile terrestrial transports may be identified and tracked through thedetection and measurement of signals transmitted by co-located mobileterrestrial transceivers.

In accordance with an example implementation, a method may be providedwhich comprises, determining, by the mobile device, at least onelocation of the mobile device; determining, by the mobile device, thatthe mobile device is on a mobile terrestrial transport; determining, bythe mobile device, that at least one transceiver identifier isassociated with the mobile terrestrial transport based upon at least onesignal received from at least one mobile terrestrial transceiver; anduploading, by the mobile device, the at least one transceiver identifierand the at least one location to a crowd source server.

In accordance with an example implementation, an apparatus may beprovided for use in a mobile device. The apparatus may comprise: awireless transceiver; one or more processing units coupled to thewireless transceiver, the one or more processing units configured to:determine at least one location of the mobile device; determine that themobile device is on a mobile terrestrial transport; identify at leastone transceiver identifier associated with the mobile terrestrialtransport based upon at least one signal received from at least onemobile terrestrial transceiver; upload, via the wireless transceiver,the at least one transceiver identifier and the at least one location toa crowd source server.

In accordance with an example implementation, an apparatus may beprovided for use in a mobile device. The apparatus may comprise: meansfor determining, by the mobile device, at least one location of themobile device; means for determining, by the mobile device, that themobile device is on a mobile terrestrial transport; means fordetermining, by the mobile device, that at least one transceiveridentifier is associated with the mobile terrestrial transport basedupon at least one signal received from at least one mobile terrestrialtransceiver; and means for uploading, by the mobile device, the at leastone transceiver identifier and the at least one location to a crowdsource server.

In accordance with an example implementation, a method may be providedwhich comprises, performing, by the mobile device, at least one wirelessscan for transceiver signals; determining, by the mobile device, atleast one location of the mobile device; identifying, by the mobiledevice, at least one transient signal and an at least one associatedtransceiver identifier; and uploading to a crowd source server, by themobile device, the at least one location of the mobile device, a timeassociated with the at least one wireless scan, and the at least oneassociated transceiver identifier.

In accordance with an example implementation, an apparatus may beprovided for use in a mobile device. The apparatus may comprise: one ormore processing units; and a wireless transceiver coupled to the one ormore processing units; and configured to: perform at least one wirelessscan for transceiver signals; determine at least one location of themobile device; identify at least one transient signal and an at leastone associated transceiver identifier; upload the at least one locationof the mobile device, a time associated with the at least one wirelessscan and the at least one associated transceiver identifier.

In accordance with another example implementation, an apparatus may beprovided for use in a mobile device. The apparatus may comprise: meansfor performing at least one wireless scan for transceiver signals; meansfor determining at least one location of the mobile device; means foridentifying at least one transient signal and an at least one associatedtransceiver identifier; and means for uploading the at least onelocation of the mobile device, a time associated with the at least onewireless scan and the at least one associated transceiver identifier.

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive aspects are described with reference tothe following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to likeparts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive aspects are described with reference tothe following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to likeparts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary mobile device capable ofdetecting wireless signals and of determining the location of the mobiledevice.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram including wireless-capable mobile devices andnetwork-based servers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a network-based server, as may be used fora crowd source server, a location server, a route/navigation server orother network-based server.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a process for crowd sourcinginformation from a mobile device located on a mobile terrestrialtransport.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment for a process for crowd sourcinginformation from a mobile device located at a non-moving location, suchas a station, hub, terminal or stop, or at a location along or near to atransit route where signals from a mobile terrestrial transceiver arevisible.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment for determining the location of atransport and sending the location of the transport to a mobile device.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a process for receiving anddisplaying mobile transport information on a mobile device.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example embodiment for a map indicating thelocation of at least one transport.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some example techniques are presented herein which may be implemented invarious methods, means and apparatuses in a mobile device and in a crowdsourcing and information delivery system. Example techniques presentedherein address various methods and apparatuses in a mobile device toprovide for or otherwise support the crowd sourcing of and the displayof transit-related information. Example techniques described herein maygenerally apply to crowd sourcing of information related to mobileaccess points that travel in scheduled or otherwise predictable mannerson known routes. Example techniques and embodiments are provided forcrowd-sourcing, tracking, predicting and displaying information relatedto mobile access points or other mobile terrestrial transceivers.

In the case of moving transports, co-located transceivers, such ason-board access points or other transceivers, in an embodiment,accessing a data connection through either satellite or wide areanetwork (WAN), may provide useful information, both for occupants on thetransport relating to the location of a device within a transport andfor persons and devices external to the transport relating to thelocation and timing of the transport, where such information is nototherwise available, and, in an embodiment, providing an additionalpredictable signal reference for use in location determination. Such asignal reference could prove useful in rural or other areas whereterrestrial transceiver density is low such as in rural or wildernessareas. In a low signal density area, multiple signal measurements from amoving terrestrial transceiver, or multiple moving terrestrialtransceivers, may be utilized to provide sufficient signal measurementsto trilaterate or otherwise determine a location. In an embodiment, thelocation of the moving terrestrial transceiver may be known ordetermined based upon travel utilizing a predictable route at a specifictime. In an embodiment, the location of the moving transport may bedetermined by the moving transport, perhaps by an on board GNSS systemor other location means, and may be transmitted along withidentification information, to mobile devices for use in determiningtheir location.

The location of many public transit vehicles is scheduled along a fixedroute at pre-determined or at least approximately determined times.However, the adherence of public vehicles to any given schedule may besubject to weather, traffic, obstacles, scheduling issues and otherdelay factors. While some transit vehicles contain GPS tracking or othertracking means, and regularly send updated locations to a trackingserver, other transit vehicles may not be enabled or, in some cases, thetracking data may not be shared with public information platforms ormade available to online application platforms. These and other issuesmay be addressed by verifying the location of transit vehicles throughcrowdsourcing the location of a co-located transceiver (e.g., a wirelesstransceiver that is located on the transit vehicle), either via anonboard transceiver or via devices in the vicinity of the transitvehicle or both, or via extrapolation from the location of co-locateddevices at known times, based on predictable or crowd-sourcedvelocities.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a mobile device, a non-limitingexample for implementing the various methods and techniques illustratedin the figures and text herein. As shown in FIG. 1, in an embodiment,mobile device 100, which may also be referred to as a UE (or userequipment), may include a general-purpose processor 110. Thegeneral-purpose processor 110 may sometimes be referred to by othernames such as an applications processor, a general processor, a mainprocessor or a processor. Various functionality may run on thegeneral-purpose processor 110 such as applications, operating systemfunctions and general mobile device functions. General-purpose processor110 may also include processors, including additional processors, thatperform more specialized functionality, or parts thereof, such asprocessing related to camera sensors, video, audio and wireless signalprocessing such as wireless baseband processors. In an embodiment,mobile device 100 may also include a DSP 120, which may be used forvarious compute processing tasks such as video and graphical processing,display management, GNSS signal processing, WAN signal processing andWi-Fi signal processing. Some tasks may, in some embodiments, be splitbetween the general-purpose processor and one or more DSPs such aslocation determination, where signal search, processing and correlationmay happen at the DSP level while location determination may becalculated at the general-purpose processor 110.

In mobile device 100, wireless transceiver(s) 130 may support variouswide area network (WAN) connections (e.g., Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), WidebandCDMA (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5^(th) Generation Wireless (5G)or new radio access technology (NR), High Rate Packet Data (HRPD)),wireless LAN connections (e.g., Wi-Fi/802.11) and personal area network(PAN) connections (e.g., Bluetooth and Zigbee) or combinations thereof.Wireless transceiver(s) 130 may be implemented by multi-modetransceivers, discrete transceivers, separate or shared antennas (132)or various combinations thereof.

Mobile device 100 may contain a GNSS receiver (170) and GNSS antenna172. The GNSS receiver 170 may measure various signals 174 received fromsatellites belonging to an SPS or Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo or Beidou. These signalmeasurements may be utilized to determination location either alone orin combination with terrestrial signals such as WAN, WLAN and PANsignals.

Mobile device 100 may include various sensors and may, in someembodiments be discrete or in some embodiments, be integrated into asensor subsystem 140. Sensors may include, in various embodiments,accelerometers such as 3D accelerometers, gyros such as 3D gyros, andmagnetometers, often used alone or in combination to determine deadreckoning output such as heading, distance, and orientation. Sensors maybe used, in an embodiment to determine velocity and acceleration and/orused to determine step count and gait. Other sensors, in an embodiment,may include camera sensors, light sensors, and pressure sensors or otheraltimeters or other sensor types such as medical and chemical sensors.

Mobile device 100 may include a display. In some embodiments, thedisplay may be a touchscreen, used for both visual output andtouch-driven input. The display be associated with a virtual keyboard onthe display, sometimes on demand, or by an actual keyboard, forcharacter input. Mobile device 100 may include an audio interface 180,including in various embodiments, speakers and associated drivers, foraudio output and one or more microphones for audio input. In anembodiment, audio input may be associated with voice recognition, eitherimplemented on the mobile device 100 or on a server 300. Mobile device100 may also include memory 160, which may comprise FLASH, RAM, ROM,disc drive, or FLASH card or other memory devices or variouscombinations thereof.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system and means for implementing the variousmethods and techniques described in the figures and text herein. Asshown in FIG. 2, in an embodiment, mobile device 100, which may also bereferred to as a UE (or user equipment), may transmit radio signals to,and receive radio signals from, a wireless communication network. In oneexample, mobile device 100 may communicate, via wide area network (WAN)wireless transceiver 220 and wireless antenna 132 with a cellularcommunication network by transmitting wireless signals to, or receivingwireless signals from a WAN wireless transceiver 220 which may comprisea wireless base transceiver subsystem (BTS), a Node B or an evolvedNodeB (eNodeB) or a next generation NodeB (gNodeB) over wirelesscommunication link 222. Similarly, mobile device 100 may transmitwireless signals to, or receive wireless signals from WLAN or PANtransceiver 230 over wireless communication link 232. In an embodiment,mobile device 100 may transmit wireless signals to, or receive wirelesssignals from a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 over wirelesscommunication link 232. A WLAN or PAN transceiver 230 and/or a mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 may comprise an access point (AP),femtocell, Home Base Station, small cell base station, Home Node B(HNB), Home eNodeB (HeNB) or next generation NodeB (gNodeB) and mayprovide access to a wireless local area network (WLAN, e.g., IEEE 802.11network), a wireless personal area network (PAN, e.g., Bluetooth®network) or a cellular network (e.g. an LTE network or other wirelesswide area network such as those discussed in the next paragraph). Ofcourse, it should be understood that these are merely examples ofnetworks that may communicate with a mobile device over a wireless link,and claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. It is alsounderstood that mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 may be located onvarious mobile platforms such as trains, boats, cars or other mobileterrestrial platforms. In an embodiment, it is understood that otherterrestrial platforms or near terrestrial platforms (such as a drone orrobot) may be a platform for a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280.

Examples of network technologies that may support wireless transceiver130 are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution LTE),5^(th) Generation Wireless (5G) or New Radio Access Technology (NR),High Rate Packet Data (HRPD). GSM, WCDMA and LTE are technologiesdefined by 3GPP. CDMA and HRPD are technologies defined by the 3^(rd)Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). WCDMA is also part of theUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and may be supportedby an HNB. WAN wireless transceivers 220 may comprise deployments ofequipment providing subscriber access to a wireless telecommunicationnetwork for a service (e.g., under a service contract). Here, a WANwireless transceiver 220 may perform functions of a wide area network(WAN) or cell base station in servicing subscriber devices within a celldetermined based, at least in part, on a range at which the WAN wirelesstransceiver 220 is capable of providing access service. Examples of WANbase stations include GSM™, WCDMA™, LTE™, CDMA™, HRPD™ WiFi™, BT,WiMax™, and/or 5^(th) Generation (5G) base stations. In an embodiment,further wireless transceiver 130 may comprise a wireless LAN (WLAN)and/or PAN transceiver. In an embodiment, mobile device 100 may containmultiple wireless transceivers including WAN, WLAN and/or PANtransceivers. In an embodiment, radio technologies that may supportwireless communication link or links (wireless transceiver 130) furthercomprise Wireless local area network (e.g., WLAN, e.g., IEEE 802.11),Bluetooth™ (BT) and/or ZigBee™.

In an embodiment, mobile device 100, using wireless transceiver(s) 130,may communicate with servers 240, 250 and/or 260 over a network 270through communication interface(s) 308. Here, network 270 may compriseany combination of wired or wireless connections and may include WANwireless transceiver 220 and/or WLAN or PAN transceiver 230 and/orservers 240, 250 and/or 260. In an embodiment, network 270 may compriseInternet Protocol (IP) or other infrastructure capable of facilitatingcommunication between mobile device 100 and servers 240, 250 and/or 260through WLAN or PAN transceiver 230 or WAN wireless transceiver 220. Inan embodiment, network 270 may comprise cellular communication networkinfrastructure such as, for example, a base station controller or packetbased or circuit based switching center (not shown) to facilitate mobilecellular communication with mobile device 100. In an embodiment, network270 may comprise local area network (LAN) elements such as Wi-Fi APs,routers and bridges and may in that case include or have links togateway elements that provide access to wide area networks such as theInternet. In other implementations, network 270 may comprise a LAN andmay or may not have access to a wide area network but may not provideany such access (if supported) to mobile device 100. In someimplementations, network 270 may comprise multiple networks (e.g., oneor more wireless networks and/or the Internet). In one implementation,network 270 may include one or more serving gateways or Packet DataNetwork gateways. In addition, one or more of servers 240, 250 and/or260 may be a route and/or navigation server, a crowd source server,and/or a location server.

In various embodiments, and as discussed below, mobile device 100 mayhave circuitry and processing resources capable of obtaining locationrelated measurements (e.g. for signals received from GPS, GNSS or otherSatellite Positioning System (SPS) satellites 210, WAN wirelesstransceiver 220 or WLAN or PAN transceiver 230 and possibly computing aposition fix or estimated location of mobile device 100 based on theselocation related measurements. In some implementations, location relatedmeasurements obtained by mobile device 100 may be transferred to alocation server such as an enhanced serving mobile location center(E-SMLC) or SUPL location platform (SLP) (e.g. which may be one ofservers 240, 250 and/or 260) after which the location server mayestimate or determine a location for mobile device 100 based on themeasurements. In the presently illustrated example, location relatedmeasurements obtained by mobile device 100 may include measurements ofsignals (112) received from satellites belonging to an SPS or GlobalNavigation Satellite System (GNSS) (210) such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileoor Beidou and/or may include measurements of signals (such as 222 and/or232) received from terrestrial transmitters fixed at known locations(e.g., such as WAN wireless transceiver 220). Mobile device 100 or aseparate location server may then obtain a location estimate for mobiledevice 100 based on these location related measurements using any one ofseveral position methods such as, for example, GNSS, Assisted GNSS(A-GNSS), Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT), Observed TimeDifference of Arrival (OTDOA) or Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) orcombinations thereof. In some of these techniques (e.g. A-GNSS, AFLT andOTDOA), pseudoranges or timing differences may be measured at mobiledevice 100 relative to three or more terrestrial transmitters at knownlocations or relative to four or more satellites with accurately knownorbital data, or combinations thereof, based at least in part, onpilots, positioning reference signals (PRS) or other positioning relatedsignals transmitted by the transmitters or satellites and received atmobile device 100. Here, servers 240, 250 or 260 may be capable ofproviding positioning assistance data to mobile device 100 including,for example, information regarding signals to be measured (e.g., signaltiming and/or signal strength), locations and identities of terrestrialtransmitters, schedules and route of mobile terrestrial transceivers280, and/or signal, timing and orbital information for GNSS satellitesto facilitate positioning techniques such as A-GNSS, AFLT, OTDOA andE-CID. For example, servers 240, 250 or 260 may comprise an almanacwhich indicates locations, or route or location as a function of timefor moving transmitters, and identities of wireless transceivers and/orlocal transceivers in a particular region or regions such as aparticular venue, and may provide information descriptive of signalstransmitted by a cellular base station or AP or mobile terrestrialtransceiver such as transmission power and signal timing. In the case ofE-CID, a mobile device 100 may obtain measurements of signal strengthsfor signals received from WAN wireless transceiver 220 and/or wirelesslocal area network or PAN transceiver 230 and/or mobile terrestrialtransceiver (MTT) 280 and/or may obtain a round trip signal propagationtime (RTT) between mobile device 100 and a WAN wireless transceiver 220or wireless WLAN or PAN transceiver 230 or MTT 280. A mobile device 100may use these measurements together with assistance data (e.g.terrestrial almanac data or GNSS satellite data such as GNSS Almanacand/or GNSS Ephemeris information) received from a location server 260to determine a location for mobile device 100 or may transfer themeasurements to a location server 260 to perform the same determination.

In various embodiments, location related measurements comprisinglocation and an indication or indications of WAN wireless transceiver(s)220, wireless WLAN or PAN transceiver 230, or mobile terrestrialtransceiver 280, by mobile device 100 may be transferred to a crowdsource server 250. The location may be determined through various means,as described above. For example, in an embodiment, the mobile device 100may determine its location with GNSS satellite signal measurements, withterrestrial transmitter signal measurements or some combination thereof.In an embodiment, the mobile device 100 may determine its location usingaccelerometers and/or gyros to determine, via dead reckoning, distanceand direction traveled from the last known position. In an embodiment,the mobile device 100 may determine its location using a combination ofsignals and sensors; for example, a location may be determined usingvarious signal measurements from GNSS and terrestrial transmitters andthen updated using dead reckoning. From a determined location, varioussignal measurements can be taken from visible transmitters to obtain anindication of distance of the transmitter from a determined location.The indication of distance may include signal strength or round triptime or time of arrival or other distance estimation methods. New signalmeasurements may be taken at new determined locations. By combiningindications of distance to any given transmitter taken from multiplelocations, whether by one device or by a plurality of devices, thelocation of a transmitter, such as a WAN transceiver 220 or WLAN or PANtransmitter 230, may be determined. The location of the transmitter maybe determined on mobile device 100 or on a crowd sourcing server 250 oron a location server 260 or other network-based server.

In some embodiments, measurements of transient signals or signals frommoving transmitters, such as those from mobile phones or fromvehicle-mounted transmitters, are discarded and/or ignored. However, inan embodiment, doppler measurements and/or distancemeasurements/indications (such as timing based measurements or signalstrength measurements) of a signal emitted by a moving signal source,such as mobile terrestrial transceiver 280, may be utilized to determinethe location, heading and/or speed of a moving signal source.Furthermore, in an embodiment, mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 may belocated within or on top of a mobile transport such as a train or a busor other vehicle that follows a regular route on a regular schedule. Inthe case of a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280, the normal frequencyassociated with the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 is tied to awireless standard such as IEEE 802.11 or LTE and to a deployed frequencyband such as Cellular or PCS for cellular or 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 4.9 GHz,5 GHz and 5.9 GHz for IEEE 802.11. The signals received at the mobiledevice from a moving transmitter, such as mobile terrestrial transceiver280 in a moving train or bus or other vehicle, will be subject to adoppler shift which can be utilized to a) determine that mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 is in motion and, in some cases, determinethe speed and even the heading of that motion. In the case of a mobiletransport that follows a regular route on a regular schedule, or atleast a mobile transport that follows a known route on a known schedule,the mobile device 100 can be utilized to determine a pairing between amobile transport and a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280. In anembodiment, a mobile device 100 at a determined location, could alsodetermine, based upon the strength and/or doppler shift of the signalreceived from mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 in mobile terrestrialtransport 281 while traveling along a fixed route, the location ofmobile terrestrial transport 281. For example, a train going by along afixed route, containing a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280, wouldresult in mobile device 100 receiving signals from mobile terrestrialtransceiver 280, at a particular signal strength (or time delay or RTDor other indication of distance) at two positions, one when approachingthe mobile device 100 and one when heading away from mobile device 100.However, the mobile device would receive different doppler results ateach of the two positions. Thus, when the train is approaching, thefrequency of signals from mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 would beshifted higher than the nominal communication frequency, and when thetrain is heading away from mobile device 100, the frequency of signalsfrom mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 would be shifted lower, based ondoppler. Therefore, once a pairing between a mobile terrestrialtransceiver 280 and a mobile terrestrial transport 281 is known, themobile device 100, when at a known location, can used to verify thelocation of the mobile transport and/or determine whether the mobiletransport is delayed or is ahead of time relative to the crowd sourcedand/or published schedule information.

In an embodiment, a mobile device 100 at a train station or a bus stopmay determine its location using GNSS, wireless terrestrialtransceivers, sensors or various combinations thereof, or any of theabove-mentioned location techniques. Furthermore, the mobile device 100may access map data, stored locally on the mobile device 100, oraccessed remotely on a server, such as map and information server 240,to determine that mobile device 100 is located at or near to a transithub, transit station or transit stop. If a transient signal is detectedand measured from a location at or near to a transit hub, transitstation or transit stop, and assuming that time information in additionto the location of the mobile device 100 and the signal measurement datafor detectable transceiver signals is collected, the appearance ofparticular mobile terrestrial transceivers 280 can be determined as afunction of time and location. The observed times and locations ofmobile terrestrial transceivers 280 can then be correlated with publiclyaccessible route information or schedule information or both, todetermine which transit vehicle or route or both is associated with aparticular ID for a given mobile terrestrial transceiver. For example,if a particular SSID or MAC address is observed only at scheduledarrival times for a particular bus or train, or is observed at thescheduled stops for a particular route at times at least approximatingscheduled stop times, the crowd-sourced signal, location and time datamay be used to map the particular ID for a given mobile terrestrialtransceiver 280 with a particular train or bus and/or route.

If there are multiple mobile terrestrial transceivers 280 at a givenstation (for example, at Tokyo Station in Japan), the proximity toparticular waiting areas, the time of arrival and departure, anddirection of travel (such as may be determined by multiple signalstrength measurements, by measurements by multiple devices at differentlocations or by doppler measurements from a stationary mobile device 100may be used to distinguish between different transports (trains, buses,cars, shuttles, etc.). In an embodiment, combining data from multiplestations can also be utilized to distinguish between differenttransports. In an embodiment, ambiguity in mapping between transportsand transceiver IDs may be resolved through the use of signal detectionof at least one of the IDs in question at one or more other stops orstations, where the ID-transport match may have been already determinedor, where the combination of an ID being detected near or located at twoor more stations on a prescheduled route, particularly at pre-scheduledtimes, can be used to associate a route and schedule with a particularmobile terrestrial transceiver 280. Matching times and locations of aparticular mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 and, hence, a mobiletransport, to a known route to eliminate ambiguity is particularlyuseful relative to differentiating between various mobile transports atlarge stations or transport hubs.

In an embodiment, the signal analysis and mapping between mobileterrestrial transceivers 280 and mobile transports 281 may be done onthe mobile device 100, on the crowd source server 250, on other networkserver or on some combination thereof. For example, in an embodiment,the location, time information and signal measurement information may besent to the crowd source server 250 by one or by a plurality of mobiledevices 100. The crowd source server 250 or other server, in anembodiment, utilizing maps and information from a map and informationserver 240, may be utilized to determine the location of terrestrialtransceivers such as WAN transceiver 220, wireless LAN or PANtransceiver 230, and/or mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 and, in anembodiment, to associate the locations of terrestrial transceivers to amap and/or to points of interest such as bus stops or depots, and trainstations or stops. In an embodiment, the crowd source server 250 orother server, may determine the route and timing associated with mobileterrestrial transceivers 280 (and therefore of the mobile terrestrialtransports that they are attached to/mounted on), by mapping the time,location and indication of mobile terrestrial transceiver 280identification, such as MAC ID or base station ID (BSID). Thecombination of multiple observations of signals from mobile terrestrialtransceivers 280 over time, from different locations along the routethat the mobile terrestrial transport 281 is taking, is used to create aroute map of locations traveled and the times that the mobileterrestrial transport 281 is at those locations. Similarly, individualobservations of mobile terrestrial transceivers 280 may be utilized toplace the mobile terrestrial transport 281 at a position along a route,where the route is already known.

Map and information server 240 may provide map information, publictransit maps and public transit schedules, and transit routes andscheduled arrival and departure times of particular mobile transitvehicles to the crowd source server 250, which may be utilized to assistin the analysis of crowd source data from multiple mobile devices.

To assist in analysis of the crowd source data, the crowd source server250 may group data measured, by mobile devices 100, at various transithubs such as train stations, bus hubs, bus stops, airports, depots, andother locations where mass transit vehicles or other scheduled vehiclesstop or congregate. The determination that the data was measured at atransit hub may be done on the mobile device, based on map informationdownloaded, for example, from map and information server 240, or thedetermination that the data was measured at a transit hub may be done atthe crowd source server 250 as it analyzes the data, based upon theposition of mobile device 100 that is sent to the crowd source serveralong with time of observation and signal measurements such as signalstrength, round trip time, observed time delay or other indications ofdistance from the measuring mobile. The time of observation of transientsignals can be combined with other measurements from the same or nearbylocations to determine when a given transient signal is present at alocation, and, in an embodiment, similarly determining time of arrivaland departure. Also, in an embodiment, the mobile device may use anindication of distance to mobile terrestrial transceivers 280 anddoppler measurements of mobile terrestrial transceivers 280 to assist incalculation of the location of the mobile device. This information maybe particularly useful in indoor or underground scenarios. For example,the strongest measurement of a signal, or the lack of doppler shift orthe minimum time delay measurement may be used to determine when themobile terrestrial transceiver 280, and hence, the mobile terrestrialtransport 281 is directly parallel to and passing the mobile device. Thetime that a transient signal is present and/or arrives and departs at atransit hub can be compared to known transport schedules to determinewhich transport, route and time is associated with a particular mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 identification (such as a media accesscontrol (MAC) address, service set identifier (SSID), base station ID orother identifier). In various embodiments, transport schedules areavailable online and may be downloadable by the crowd source server 250,or may be available directly from a transport authority or municipality.Transport schedules may contain locations of transport hubs andtransport stops and time schedules for stops at each hub or stop forvarious routes. In an embodiment, transport schedules may have arrivaltime and/or departure times for each route that stops at a giventransport hub or transport stop. In an embodiment, transport schedulesmay also have transport identifiers, although, in some cases thetransport identifiers may be transient, changing from time to time orday to day. In an embodiment, transport identifiers may be based on theroute (e.g., #7 bus, regardless of which bus is actually driving theroute).

In an embodiment, crowd source server 250 associates transport route andschedule information with the crowd source data measured by mobiledevices 100. Transient signals that are present only during a timeperiod surrounding the time a mobile terrestrial transport 281 isscheduled to be present or anticipated to be present, can be associatedwith a particular mobile terrestrial transport 281 or with the routethat the transport is scheduled to follow. If only arrival times arescheduled, or only departure times are scheduled, the transport may beassumed to be present for a reasonable time to allow for loading andunloading passengers and cargo. The estimated time that the averagetransport or even a specific transport spends at a stop or hub orstation can be prespecified, particularly if actual crowd sourced datais not available. Once crowd sourced data is available, the estimatedtime that a transport spends at a stop can be specified with moreaccuracy, either as a system-wide average, a route-specific average, oron a stop by stop basis, which may also be transport specific. As crowdsourcing is ongoing, the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 identifierthat is associated with a given route may be updated, as vehicles may bereplaced or rescheduled with other vehicles, each with its own mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 identifier. Note that signal measurements,time determination and location determination may be performed as abackground task periodically or they may be associated with a particularapplication, such as a transport status or mapping application thatwould be used to provide transport status as well as to perform signalmeasurements, time determination and location determination duringinformation requests.

Some mobile devices 100 will also be present on any given transport. Inan embodiment, mobile devices 100 will run an application to provide mapinformation or transport status or both. Again, signal measurements,time determination and location determination may be performed as abackground task periodically or they may be associated with a particularapplication, such as a transport status or mapping application thatwould be used to provide transport status and updates and/or arrival anddeparture alerts as well as to perform signal measurements, timedetermination and location determination during information requests. Tothe extent that update and information applications remain active,signal measurements, time determination and location determination maybe repeated periodically to monitor the location of the transport.Signal measurements, positioning results and time information may beutilized to determine that a mobile device 100 is on a mobileterrestrial transport 281 associated with one or more mobile terrestrialtransceivers 280. If the presence on a transport is predetermined, suchas through a ticket purchase or through embarkation times andembarkation location, the mobile device 100 may be automaticallyassociated with a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 located on the sametransport. The determination may also be made through repetitivelocation updates or through doppler measurements that the mobile device100 is on a transport on a particular route, and that one or moreterrestrial transceivers are on the same transport, based uponrelatively constant signal strength, timing or round-trip timingmeasurements from the mobile terrestrial transceiver as measured bymobile device 100. The location updates may then be paired with at leastone mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 and, hence, with a particularmobile transport. The crowd sourced location information from one ormore mobile devices 100 that are located on a mobile terrestrialtransport 281 may then be combined, if necessary, such as throughaveraging, median values or in time sequential ordering to provideupdates on the location of the mobile terrestrial transport 281. It isunderstood that these techniques would also apply to an aerial transportsuch as a plane and to airports (as transportation hubs), where mobiledevices may use GNSS for location determination and send updates via adata connection, typically through the mobile transceiver, in this caseon an airplane, such that the location of the airplane may be tracked.

It is further recognized that, particularly once the mobile terrestrialtransceiver identification (ID) is associated with a particularterrestrial transport or route, that mobile devices near the route ofthe mobile terrestrial transport 281 may also be used to determine thelocation of any mobile terrestrial transport 281 that has a mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 with signals visible to the mobile device100. In an embodiment, even if a mobile terrestrial transceiveridentification (ID) is not yet associated with a particular terrestrialtransport or route, transient signals measured near to the route may beused to both associate a mobile terrestrial transceiver identification(ID) with a route and/or with a transport and to determine the locationof a transport, that can then be correlated with available schedulinginformation to determine the ID of the actual transport or route. Thesesignals may be used for distance measurement, location determination ofthe transport, and, using repetitive measurements and/or dopplermeasurements, may, in an embodiment, be utilized to determine headingand velocity of the transport as well.

In an embodiment, the transport may also have location determination andreport capability on board. The location of the transport may be madeavailable to mobile devices 100 on the mobile terrestrial transport 281or it may be available via the Internet, either via web-based access orvia downloadable information. The transport location may be correlatedwith the location of mobile devices 100 onboard and hence, correlatedwith one or more mobile terrestrial transceivers, also onboard the sametransport (co-located), based on detection of continuous presence of atleast one signal from the co-located mobile terrestrial transceiver 280as measured and/or detected by at least one co-located mobile device100. Crowd sourcing information along the route may also be used todifferentiate between a co-located mobile terrestrial transceiver 280and a personal transceiver based on a mobile phone, for example, on amobile phone being utilized as a Wi-Fi access point. The during of thesignal and the duration of the association between the signal from themobile terrestrial transceiver 280 and the route can be utilized todistinguish from temporarily co-located transceivers such as the mobilephone-based access point, and long term co-located transceivers such asa mobile terrestrial transceiver that is mounted or other installed in amobile terrestrial transport 281 or other transport.

In an embodiment, mobile device 100 may receive crowd sourced locationinformation for the mobile terrestrial transport 281 and may receive mapinformation, route information and stop, hub and/or station locationinformation from various servers such as from the crowd source server250 or the map and information server 240 or from an application serveror some combination thereof. The location information for the mobileterrestrial transport 281 and/or location of the mobile device 100 and,where available, speed information and/or historical informationrelative to location of the mobile terrestrial transport 281 on a routeat a particular time may be used to generate alerts for mobile devices.For example, location of the a co-located mobile device 100 and/orlocation of the mobile terrestrial transport 281 may be used with crowdsourced and/or historical schedule information to determine when themobile terrestrial transport 281 will arrive at a particular station orhub or stop, whether the mobile terrestrial transport 281 is on scheduleor early or late, and by how much, or to generate an alert to the rideron the transport when the mobile terrestrial transport 281 is nearing astation or when the mobile terrestrial transport 281 is nearing a finaldestination, possibly based on a fixed distance or a pre-determined timebefore the mobile device 100 and the mobile terrestrial transport 281arrives at the station, hub, stop or final destination. Similarly, analert may be generated at a mobile device located at a station, hub orstop about the upcoming arrival of a selected mobile terrestrialtransport 281. The selected mobile terrestrial transport 281 may bereceived via a user interface, or may be inferred based on location ofthe mobile device 100 at a particular platform, gate or stop, or may bedetermined based on an electronic ticket purchase or from an entry in acalendar on mobile device 100. The crowd sourced data for the mobileterrestrial transport 281 may be compared to the location of mobiledevice 100 and, based on real time progress of mobile terrestrialtransport 281 or based on historical times to traverse the interveningdistance on the route between the current location of the mobileterrestrial transport 281 and the mobile device 100, estimated time ofarrival, remaining time until arrival and/or an alert at a select timeor distance before arrival may be determined and/or implemented. Thealert or alerts or route progress updates may be displayed via a displayinterface. In an embodiment, route progress may be displayed as an iconon a map or as a moving icon or arrow (showing heading and location) ona map. In an embodiment, route alerts and/or route progress may bedisplayed on popup windows on a display or via audio announcements ortones or alarms or via vibration or haptic alert or combination thereof.

A mobile device (e.g. mobile device 100 in FIG. 1) may be referred to asa device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobilestation (MS), a user equipment (UE), a SUPL Enabled Terminal (SET) or bysome other name and may correspond to a cellphone, smartphone, laptop,tablet, PDA, tracking device or some other portable or moveable device.Typically, though not necessarily, a mobile device may support wirelesscommunication such as using GSM, WCDMA, LTE, CDMA, HRPD, Wi-Fi, BT,WiMax™, Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5th Generation Wireless (5G) or newradio access technology (NR), etc. A mobile device may also supportwireless communication using a wireless LAN (WLAN), personal areanetwork (PAN) such as Bluetooth™ or ZigBee™, DSL or packet cable forexample. A mobile device may comprise a single entity or may comprisemultiple entities such as in a personal area network where a user mayemploy audio, video and/or data I/O devices and/or body sensors and aseparate wireline or wireless modem. An estimate of a location of amobile device (e.g., mobile device 100) may be referred to as alocation, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, positionestimate or position fix, and may be geographic, thus providing locationcoordinates for the mobile device (e.g., latitude and longitude) whichmay or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sealevel, height above or depth below ground level, floor level or basementlevel). Alternatively, a location of a mobile device may be expressed asa civic location (e.g., as a postal address or the designation of somepoint or small area in a building such as a particular room or floor). Alocation of a mobile device may also be expressed as an area or volume(defined either geographically or in civic form) within which the mobiledevice is expected to be located with some probability or confidencelevel (e.g., 67% or 95%). A location of a mobile device may further be arelative location comprising, for example, a distance and direction orrelative X, Y (and Z) coordinates defined relative to some origin at aknown location which may be defined geographically or in civic terms orby reference to a point, area or volume indicated on a map, floor planor building plan. In the description contained herein, the use of theterm location may comprise any of these variants unless indicatedotherwise.

FIG. 3 illustrates a server as a non-limiting example of means forimplementing the methods and techniques described herein. Referring toFIG. 3, in an embodiment, the servers 240, 250 and 260 and other networkbased servers, may use the computing platform 301 embodiment of FIG. 3.The computing platform may comprise one or more processors, here,processing unit(s) (302) comprising one or more general purposeprocessors, special processors such as graphics processors and/orcommunications processors or baseband processors. Computing platform 301will include at least one communication interface 308 to sendcommunications over network 270. The communication interface 308 maycomprise a network interface card or cards or other interface forinterfacing to an Intranet and/or Internet over network 270.Communication interface 308 may also comprise, in some embodiments, awireless interface or interfaces such as WAN, WLAN and Bluetoothwireless interfaces. The computing platform may also comprise variousmemory (304), such as Cache, RAM, ROM, disc, and FLASH memory. In anembodiment, Computing platform 301 may also access computer readablemedium 320 such as hard disk drives, tape drives, flash drives and othermemory devices.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method and technique for crowd sourcing transportinformation from a mobile device 100 located on a mobile terrestrialtransport 281. The means to implement the methods and techniques of FIG.4 include, but are not limited to the apparatus and systems of FIGS.1-3. Referring to FIG. 4, in an embodiment, a mobile device may obtain atransceiver identifier for a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280co-located on a mobile terrestrial transport 281 with mobile device 100.In an embodiment, mobile device 100 will determine its location whilelocated on mobile terrestrial transport. In some embodiments, the mobiledevice 100 will determine its location periodically, and communicatelocations, while on the transport wirelessly, such as via a WAN wirelessconnection or via a WLAN wireless connection to crowd source server 250.In an embodiment, mobile device 100 will determine that it is moving bydetermining its location periodically, or at varying intervals or bymeasuring doppler off of wireless signals such as WAN, WLAN or GNSSsignals. In an embodiment, the mobile device will also determine the IDof visible wireless transceivers, such as WAN and WLAN transceivers, anddetermine an indication of distance to those transceivers, for example,by measuring received signal strength indications (RSSI) or timingindications (such as time of arrival (TOA) and/or round trip delay(RTD)) or some combination thereof.

In an embodiment, in step 410, the mobile device may determine at leastone location the mobile device. Location may be determined throughvarious techniques such as through the use and measurement of GNSSsignals, WAN signals, WLAN signals, PAN signals, or some combinationthereof. In an embodiment, location may be determined throughtrilateration of GNSS signals, in conjunction with orbit informationsuch as ephemeris, long term ephemeris, almanac or other orbitinformation. In an embodiment, location may be determined throughtrilateration or other method using WAN, WLAN and/or PAN signals inconjunction with location, identification and other information (such asbroadcast signal strength, maximum antenna range, communication range,and/or timing offset) as may be downloaded or accessed via, for example,a base station almanac. Assistance data may be provided from a locationserver 260 or almanac server or other network-based server.

In an embodiment, in step 420, the mobile device determines that it ison a mobile terrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, the mobiledevice may compare its immediate history of locations with the route ofa mobile terrestrial transport 281 to determine that the mobile deviceis currently on a transport. In an embodiment, the mobile device mayalso utilize ticket information, itinerary information and/or calendarand scheduling information to determine that the mobile is on a mobileterrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, the mobile device maydetermine that it is at a train, bus or other mobile terrestrialtransport 281 depot or station, by comparing its location to knownlocations of train, bus or other mobile terrestrial transport 281 depotsor stations, and determine that the route and/or time of travel awayfrom the station is consistent with a known public transit route andtime. In an embodiment, the mobile device may detect a known mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 associated with a mobile terrestrialtransport 281 and determine that the mobile device is moving, throughlocation tracking, on a route associated a mobile terrestrial transport281. In an embodiment, the mobile device may detect a known mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 associated with a mobile terrestrialtransport 281 and determine that the mobile device is in proximity tomobile terrestrial transceiver 280, in an example, wherein the mobiledevice is in proximity (for example, based on signal strength or timingmeasurements determining that the mobile device is likely to be onmobile terrestrial transport 281) to mobile terrestrial transceiver 280for an extended period of time, consistent with riding on mobileterrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, the mobile may utilizevarious combinations of the above methods to determine that it is on atransport.

In an embodiment, in step 430, the mobile device determines that atleast one transceiver identifier is associated with the mobileterrestrial transport 281 based, at least in part, upon at least onesignal received from the at least one mobile terrestrial transceiver. Inan embodiment, the mobile device may determine that a transceiveridentifier is associated with a mobile terrestrial transport 281, thatthe mobile device is co-located on, by the detection of a wirelesssignal from a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280, and determining thatthe signal strength, an indication of distance from the mobileterrestrial transceiver 280, is constant (over time), or constant withina threshold delta signal strength (to account for variations caused bymovement within the transport, changes in orientation of the device andin-transport blockages), or that other indications of distance such asround trip delay (RTD), also known as round trip time (RTT) or time ofarrival (TOA) are relatively constant within a predetermined threshold,while the mobile device is in motion, as determined through tracking thelocation of the mobile device over time. In an embodiment, thepredetermined threshold may be based upon the difference in signalstrength or timing measurements that could be expected via movement of adevice within the transport (as opposed to movement of the mobileterrestrial transport 281 itself), changes in device orientation, ormovement to a different or closed compartment. In an embodiment, themobile device 100 may determine that it is moving due to the transientnature of signals from non-mobile transceivers or non-co-locatedtransceivers, such as those specified at a stationary location in a basestation almanac, and/or from locations determined therefrom, and mayassociate the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 with the mobileterrestrial transport 281 by the relatively constant signal strength ortiming measurements derived from the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280,relative to detected non-mobile terrestrial transceivers.

In an embodiment, in step 440, the mobile device uploads an indicationfor the at least one associated transceiver identifier and the location,to a crowd source server or other network-based server. In anembodiment, one or more associated transceiver identifiers, each from anassociated mobile terrestrial transceiver 280, are associated with themobile terrestrial transport 281, as discussed in step 430. In anembodiment, a time indication is also associated with the location ofthe mobile device 100 and the one or more associated transceiveridentifiers associated with transceivers that are detected at theindicated time. In an embodiment, signal measurements such as signalstrength, time of arrival, round trip delay or other indications ofdistance are also associated with the location of the mobile device 100at the time indicated uploaded. In an embodiment, the upload, includingat least location of the mobile device 100 and associated transceiveridentifiers, may occur after each measurement. In an embodiment, theupload, including at least location of the mobile device 100 andassociated transceiver identifiers, may be batched and uploaded afterlonger intervals than the tracking rate. In an embodiment, the upload,including at least location of the mobile device 100 and associatedtransceiver identifiers, may be batched and uploaded upon the mobiledevice gaining access to a cooperative WLAN access point, or other dataconnection, in some embodiments scheduled to occur when the mobiledevice 100 is charging or not in use. In an embodiment, the upload,including at least location of the mobile device 100 and associatedtransceiver identifiers, may occur as part of the execution of aninformational application such as an application to alert the user ofpending stops or of his or her final destination, or of the execution ofa mapping application or of a mobile terrestrial transport statusapplication showing the progress of the mobile terrestrial transport 281along its route.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method and technique for crowd sourcing transportinformation from a mobile device 100 located at a non-moving location,such as a station, hub, terminal or stop, or at a location along or nearto a transit route where signals from a mobile terrestrial transceiver280 are visible.

In an embodiment, in step 510, the mobile device performs at least onewireless scan for transceiver signals. In an embodiment, the wirelessscan may be across multiple frequencies. In an embodiment, wirelesstransceivers using different wireless technologies may be detected. Inan embodiment, multiple scans may be conducted, some of which are basedon different wireless technologies on different networks such as variousWAN, WLAN and PAN networks. In an embodiment, scans may comprise acombination of passive and active scans.

In an embodiment, the step 520, the mobile device 100 determines itslocation at the time of the at least one wireless scan. In anembodiment, the mobile device stores the time of the at least onewireless scan and the location of the mobile device 100 at the time ofthe at least one wireless scan. In an embodiment, location may bedetermined using various techniques comprising GNSS and/or trilaterationof terrestrial signals comprising WAN, WLAN or PAN or combinationthereof, as discussed relative to mobile device 100. Other locationtechniques may be utilized alone or in combination such astriangulation, dead reckoning, cell sector center and mixed cell sectorcenter. In an embodiment, the mobile device 100 also determines ifmobile device 100 is in motion and, if so, at what rate and direction.In an embodiment, the mobile device 100 would include in the upload to acrowd source server, of step 540, an indication that the mobile devicewas moving at the time that location was determined and the wirelessscan was conducted. In an embodiment, the mobile device 100 wouldinclude in the upload of step 540, velocity and heading information formobile device 100.

In an embodiment, in step 530, the mobile device identifies at least onetransient signal and an associated transceiver identifier, based atleast in part upon the at least one wireless scan. In an embodiment, thedetermination that a signal from a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 istransient may be based upon the absence of a signal from mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 in at least some of a plurality of wirelessscans taken at the location or at nearby locations. For example, in anembodiment, the mobile device may analyze a plurality of scans taken atthe same location (e.g., the mobile device is not moving or has notmoved more than a threshold amount. For example, the mobile device isstill at the train station or still at a location near the route fromwhich the signals sent by the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 arevisible). The mobile device may determine that a plurality of locationsof mobile device are within a threshold distance of each other andanalyze and/or compare wireless scans taken at the plurality oflocation. The mobile device may determine that at least one signal isdetected in at least some of the plurality of scans, determined at theplurality of locations and not detected in at least some of theplurality of scans, determined at the plurality of locations, and labelthe signal as a transient signal.

In an embodiment, in step 530, the determination that a mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 is transient may be based upon signalmeasurements of a signal, an at least one transient signal, from mobileterrestrial transceiver 280 containing doppler shift (e.g., a frequencyshift up or down, based on motion), associated with relative motion ofthe mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 to mobile device 100, in awireless scan taken at a location or at nearby locations. In anembodiment, the frequency shift (doppler shift), and an indication ofdistance such as signal strength or timing measurements, for example,measured at multiple locations, may be used to determine the location ofthe mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 and the approximate direction ofmovement (e.g., as general as approaching or receding or as accurate asactual heading). In an embodiment, the frequency shift (doppler shift),and an indication of distance, such as signal strength or elapsed time,for example, measured at a single location, and combined with routeinformation for a nearby mobile terrestrial transport 281, may be usedto determine the location of the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 andthe approximate direction of movement (e.g., as general as approachingor receding or as accurate as actual heading). The determined locationof the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 may be compared to locationpredicted by the known route of a mobile terrestrial transport 281 forconsistency. Also, the determined direction or heading and/or velocityof the mobile terrestrial transceiver may be compared to the expecteddirection and/or expected speed of mobile terrestrial transport 281 toverify that the estimated velocity or general direction (approaching orreceding, for example) of the transport, based on known route and signalstrength, are consistent with expected values for location, headingand/or velocity. If the heading and/or approximate direction, and/orvelocity and/or location are outside of expected boundaries for a knownmobile terrestrial transport 281, the data uploaded in step 540 may alsocontain an indication of potentially anomalous readings or, in anembodiment, the upload in step 540 may be cancelled or may not includethe information in regards to the anomalous mobile terrestrialtransceiver 280.

In an embodiment, in step 530, the determination that the signal istransient may be based upon the absence of the transceiver which is thesource of the transient signal from a base station almanac oftransceivers at the location of the mobile device 100 or on anindication, in a base station almanac of transceiver, that thetransceiver is transient (e.g., from a moving signal source). Forexample, the transient signal may be based upon the transceiver, whichis the source of the transient signal, being categorized or otherwiselabeled as a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 in a base stationalmanac of transceivers, the base station almanac of transceivers being,in some embodiments, containing transceivers visible at the location ofthe mobile device 100.

In an embodiment, a base station almanac of transceivers comprisestransceiver identification information, transceiver location and, insome embodiments, transmission signal strength, time or time offset, andsignal type. In an embodiment, a transceiver may be associated with anindication that it is a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280. In anembodiment, a transceiver, indicated as a mobile terrestrial transceiver280 may be associated with route and schedule or time information for amobile terrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, a transceiver may beassociated with a mobile terrestrial transport 281 identifier. In anembodiment, a base station almanac may be downloaded to the mobiledevice 100, stored on the mobile device 100, arranged into tiles orbased on the location of the mobile device 100. In an embodiment, thetransient signal may be identified based on increasing signal strengthas the mobile terrestrial transport 281 approaches and decreasing signalstrength as the mobile terrestrial transport 281 leaves the area.

In an embodiment, in step 540, the mobile device 100 uploads, to a crowdsource server, the location of the mobile device 100, time of the atleast one wireless scan and the at least one associated transceiveridentifier. In an embodiment, the mobile device 100 may also upload anindication range (e.g., signal strength, time of arrival, round triptime, and/or elapsed signal time) to the mobile terrestrial transceiver280, as designated by the transceiver identifier associated with the atleast one transient signal. In an embodiment, the mobile device may alsoupload an at least one frequency measurement of the at least onetransient signal. In an embodiment, the at least one frequencymeasurement of the at least one transient signal may be utilized todetermine if the mobile terrestrial transport 281 is approaching orreceding and/or the velocity and/or heading of the mobile terrestrialtransport. In an embodiment, in addition to the location of mobiledevice 100, the route information for mobile terrestrial transport 281is also utilized in estimating the location, velocity and/or heading ofmobile terrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, the mobile device100 uploads a plurality of transceiver identifiers detected in the atleast one wireless scan. In an embodiment, the mobile device 100includes an indication that a transceiver identifier is a transientsignal in the upload. In an embodiment, each scan is associated with atime of scan and a set of transceiver identifiers detected by therespective scan, and the location of the mobile device 100 when the scanwas conducted. In an embodiment, an indication of distance, such as aphysical estimate (meters, feet, etc.), signal strength, or elapsedtime, is associated with each detected transceiver for each scan. In anembodiment, the information is uploaded to a crowd source server 250 orother network server. In an embodiment, the crowd source server 250determines the identity of the mobile terrestrial transceiver 280. In anembodiment, the mobile device 100 determines the identity of the mobileterrestrial transceiver 280. In an embodiment, the crowd source server250 determines the location of the mobile terrestrial transport 281based upon the uploaded information. In an embodiment, the crowd sourceserver 250 determines the location of the mobile terrestrial transport281 by extrapolating based upon uploaded location and time informationand velocity estimates. In an embodiment, the crowd source server 250may also consider historical time, location and speed data in estimatingthe location of mobile terrestrial transport 281.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method and technique, on a crowd source server 250,for determining the location of a transport and sending the location ofthe transport to a mobile device 100. A crowd source server 250 receivesuploaded information from mobile devices 100 and determines, based on acomparison of mobile device 100 location and time data and known routeinformation and schedule information, that a mobile device 100 islocated on a mobile terrestrial transport 281. Based upon the locationof the mobile device 100, the location of mobile terrestrial transport281 may be extrapolated and shared with mobile devices, for example, viatransportation and map information applications.

In step 610, the crowd source server 250 receives a transceiveridentifier and at least one location and a time indication from at leastone mobile device 100. In an embodiment, the crowd source server mayreceive a plurality of transceiver identifiers associated with alocation of a mobile device 100 when the scan was taken to detecttransceiver identifiers, at least some of which may be stationary(non-mobile) transceivers. In an embodiment, a transceiver identifierassociated with a mobile terrestrial transceiver 280 may be indicated orotherwise labeled. In an embodiment, the crowd source server 250 mayalso receive indications of distance between the mobile device 100 andany given transceiver, and other information, as has been discussed inregards to FIGS. 4 and 5.

In step 620, the crowd source server 250 determines that an associationbetween the transceiver identifier and a mobile terrestrial transport281 exists. The association may be determined based upon a comparison ofpublic scheduling and route information and location and time datareceived from mobile devices 100. It is expected that route data shouldmatch sequential location data received from mobile device 100 and thattime data, associated with the location data can both be utilized toextrapolate or otherwise predict the current location of a mobileterrestrial transport 281 and to identify delay or ahead of scheduleconditions. In an embodiment, if the route data does not match thereceived time and location data, a reliability estimate of the time andlocation data may be lowered. In an embodiment, if the route data doesnot match the received time and location data, map and traffic data maybe analyzed to explain route deviation and/or alerts may be sent out tousers, police, and/or mass transit authorities. It is further understoodthat, once a mapping between a transceiver identifier and a mobileterrestrial transport 281 and/or a route is made, that mapping may beutilized to determine the location of a mobile terrestrial transport 281along its route without re-determining the mapping for each set of data.

In step 630, in an embodiment, the crowd source server 250 estimates alocation of the transport based, at least in part, on the receivedtransceiver identifier, the received at least one location and the timeindication. Based upon the mapping between a transceiver identifier, instep 620, and a mobile terrestrial transport 281, the location of amobile device 100 may be associated with the location of a mobileterrestrial transport 281. Furthermore, based on the time associatedwith each location received from mobile device 100, the location of themobile terrestrial transport may be extrapolated or otherwise predictedto current locations and to future locations. In an embodiment,historical data relating to speed along segments of the route, in anembodiment, as measured at various times may be utilized to extendlocations forward more accurately than mere extrapolation by predictingthe amount of time to traverse different route segments at thedesignated time of day.

In step 630, in an embodiment, the crowd source server 250 sends thelocation of the mobile terrestrial transport 281 to a mobile device 100,via an information server such as a map server or an application server,such as a transit status server or transit alert server. The mobiledevice 100 would receive the location of the mobile terrestrialtransport 281 indirectly as part of a map or as part of a set of alertsrelative to predicted times of arrival at different stations and/ortimes of arrival at a final destination.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method and technique for receiving and displayingmobile transport information on a mobile device. It is understood thatother embodiments may be utilized to retrieve and display mobileterrestrial transport 281 information.

In step 710, the mobile device 100 requests mobile terrestrial transportinformation, either from an application server, such as an applicationserver that provides schedule information or alerts for arrivaldeparture or pending arrival or impending final destination or variouscombinations thereof, or from directly from an application on mobiledevice 100 to the crowd source server or to an information server. It isunderstood that, in an embodiment, an application server may obtain theroute and schedule data and predictions from the crowd source server.

In step 720, the mobile device 100 receives mobile terrestrial transport281 information, comprising information regarding the location of atleast one mobile terrestrial transport 281, the location of the at leastone mobile terrestrial transport 281 along its route, and estimated timeahead or behind schedule. In an embodiment, the schedule delayinformation may vary based on stop. Also, in an embodiment, the arrivaland/or departure times and delay information may be customized based onthe location of the requesting mobile device 100 and the closest transitstop or depot.

In step 730, the mobile device 100 displays an indication of at leastone mobile terrestrial transport. In an embodiment, the mobileterrestrial transports 281 displayed may be based on a particularstation or depot or a particular time period or both. For example, themobile device 100 may display the information for mobile terrestrialtransports 281 scheduled to arrive within a particular period of time(next two hours, during the current day, etc.) at the closest or mostconvenient or designated transit hub or stop.

In optional step 740, the mobile device receives an indication of amobile terrestrial transport selection. In an embodiment, the indicationmay be received from a user interface, such as a touch screen. In anembodiment, the indication may comprise a selection of one or more alist of mobile terrestrial transports 281 arriving at a selected stationor hub, such as via touch selection via a touch screen, or via a keypador via a virtual keypad.

In optional step 750, the mobile device displays arrival information forthe selected terrestrial transport, associated with at least onetransportation hub. In an embodiment, the arrival information may bedisplayed in a text display. In an embodiment, the arrival informationmay be displayed on a map, with arrival information being associatedwith each stop along the route for the selected terrestrial transport.In an embodiment, a map may be displayed illustrating the estimatedposition of the mobile terrestrial transport 281. In an embodiment, theestimated position of the mobile terrestrial transport 281 may beupdated automatically, such that an indicator for the mobile terrestrialtransport 281 moves along its route on a map, as illustrated in FIG. 8

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a display of mobile terrestrialtransport 281 location on a map, each mobile terrestrial transport 281indicator being accompanied by arrival times at upcoming stops for thatmobile terrestrial transport 281. 820 illustrates a train system withstops indicated as circles along the route. Train 810 is an example ofan icon designating the location of the mobile terrestrial transport281, in this case, a train 810 on train route 840 which runs on thetrain system 820. The times of arrival for Glenfield, Casula, Liverpooland Warwick Farm are displayed next to the icon designating the locationof the mobile terrestrial transport 281 (here, train 810) along trainroute 840. It is understood that the times of arrival would track withthe indicator for train 810 along train route 840. 830 illustrates anicon designating the location of the mobile terrestrial transport 281,in this case a bus 830, along bus route 850. Again, the scheduled stopsfor bus route 850 are displayed next to the icon for the bus. The streetmap has been left out for simplicity of illustration; however, in someembodiments, both the train route 840 and the bus route 850 may beoutlined or overlaid onto a street map and the different routes ortransit types may have color coded or otherwise differentiated routes.

Reference throughout this specification to “one example”, “an example”,“certain examples”, “in an embodiment”, or “exemplary implementation”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the feature and/or example may be included in atleast one feature and/or example of claimed subject matter. Thus, theappearances of the phrase “in one example”, “an example”, “in certainexamples” or “in certain implementations” or “in an embodiment” or otherlike phrases in various places throughout this specification are notnecessarily all referring to the same feature, example, and/orlimitation. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined or modified in one or more examplesand/or features and across various embodiments. The specifiedembodiments are not intended to be limiting relative to implementations,which may vary in detail; one skilled in the art will realize that othernon-specified embodiments may also be used with or to modify thedescribed embodiments.

Some portions of the detailed description included herein are presentedin terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations onbinary digital signals stored within a memory of a specific apparatus orspecial purpose computing device or platform. In the context of thisparticular specification, the term specific apparatus or the likeincludes a general-purpose computer once it is programmed to performparticular operations pursuant to instructions from program software.Algorithmic descriptions or symbolic representations are examples oftechniques used by those of ordinary skill in the signal processing orrelated arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled inthe art. An algorithm is here, and generally, is considered to be aself-consistent sequence of operations or similar signal processingleading to a desired result. In this context, operations or processinginvolve physical manipulation of physical quantities. Typically,although not necessarily, such quantities may take the form ofelectrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared or otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signalsas bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,numerals, or the like. It should be understood, however, that all ofthese or similar terms are to be associated with appropriate physicalquantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless specifically statedotherwise, as apparent from the discussion herein, it is appreciatedthat throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as“processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining” or the likerefer to actions or processes of a specific apparatus, such as a specialpurpose computer, special purpose computing apparatus or a similarspecial purpose electronic computing device. In the context of thisspecification, therefore, a special purpose computer or a similarspecial purpose electronic computing device is capable of manipulatingor transforming signals, typically represented as physical electronic ormagnetic quantities within memories, registers, or other informationstorage devices, transmission devices, or display devices of the specialpurpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device.

Wireless communication techniques described herein may be in connectionwith various wireless communications networks such as a wireless widearea network (“WAN”), a wireless local area network (“WLAN”), a wirelesspersonal area network (PAN), and so on. The term “network” and “system”may be used interchangeably herein. A WAN may be a Code DivisionMultiple Access (“CDMA”) network, a Time Division Multiple Access(“TDMA”) network, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (“FDMA”) network,an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (“OFDMA”) network, aSingle-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (“SC-FDMA”) network,Long Term Evolution (“LTE”), Fifth Generation (“5G”) or any combinationof the above networks, and so on. A CDMA network may implement one ormore radio access technologies (“RATs”) such as cdma2000, Wideband-CDMA(“W-CDMA”), to name just a few radio technologies. Here, cdma2000 mayinclude technologies implemented according to IS-95, IS-2000, and IS-856standards. A TDMA network may implement Global System for MobileCommunications (“GSM”), Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System (“D-AMPS”),or some other RAT. GSM and W-CDMA are described in documents from aconsortium named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (“3GPP”). CDMA2000is described in documents from a consortium named “3rd GenerationPartnership Project 2” (“3GPP2”). 3GPP and 3GPP2 documents are publiclyavailable. 4G Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) communications networks mayalso be implemented in accordance with claimed subject matter, in anaspect. A WLAN may comprise an IEEE 802.11x network, and a PAN maycomprise a Bluetooth network, an IEEE 802.15x, comprising a Zigbeenetwork, for example. Wireless communication implementations describedherein may also be used in connection with any combination of WAN, WLANor PAN.

In another aspect, as previously mentioned, a wireless transmitter oraccess point may comprise a wireless transceiver device, utilized toextend cellular telephone service into a business or home. In such animplementation, one or more mobile devices may communicate with awireless transceiver device via a code division multiple access (“CDMA”)cellular communication protocol, for example.

Techniques described herein may be used with a satellite positioningsystem (“SPS”) that includes any one of several global navigationsatellite systems (“GNSS” such as the Global Positioning system “GPS”,the Russian GLONASS system and the European Union's Galileo system andthe Chinese BeiDou and BeiDou-2 systems) and/or combinations of GNSS.Furthermore, such techniques may be used with positioning systems thatutilize terrestrial transmitters acting as “pseudolites”, or acombination of SVs and such terrestrial transmitters. Terrestrialtransmitters may, for example, include ground-based transmitters thatbroadcast a PN code or other ranging code (e.g., similar to a GPS orCDMA cellular signal). Such a transmitter may be assigned a unique PNcode so as to permit identification by a remote receiver. Terrestrialtransmitters may be useful, for example, to augment an SPS in situationswhere SPS signals from an orbiting SV might be unavailable, such as intunnels, mines, buildings, urban canyons or other enclosed areas.Another implementation of pseudolites is known as radio-beacons. Theterm “SV”, as used herein, is intended to include terrestrialtransmitters acting as pseudolites, equivalents of pseudolites, andpossibly others. The terms “SPS signals” and/or “SV signals”, as usedherein, is intended to include SPS-like signals from terrestrialtransmitters, including terrestrial transmitters acting as pseudolitesor equivalents of pseudolites.

In the preceding detailed description, numerous specific details havebeen set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subjectmatter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatclaimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details.In other instances, methods and apparatuses that would be known by oneof ordinary skill have not been described in detail so as not to obscureclaimed subject matter.

The terms, “and”, “or”, and “and/or” as used herein may include avariety of meanings that also are expected to depend at least in partupon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, “or” if usedto associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C,here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in theexclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” as used herein maybe used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in thesingular or may be used to describe a plurality or some othercombination of features, structures or characteristics. Though, itshould be noted that this is merely an illustrative example and claimedsubject matter is not limited to this example.

While there has been illustrated and described what are presentlyconsidered to be example features, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various other modifications may be made, andequivalents may be substituted, without departing from claimed subjectmatter. Additionally, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation to the teachings of claimed subject matter withoutdeparting from the central concept described herein.

Therefore, it is intended that claimed subject matter not be limited tothe particular examples disclosed, but that such claimed subject mattermay also include all aspects falling within the scope of appendedclaims, and equivalents thereof.

For an implementation involving firmware and/or software, themethodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures,functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Anymachine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used inimplementing the methodologies described herein. For example, softwarecodes may be stored in a memory and executed by a processor unit. Memorymay be implemented within the processor unit or external to theprocessor unit. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type oflong term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other memory and is notto be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, ortype of media upon which memory is stored.

If implemented in firmware and/or software, the functions may be storedas one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable storagemedium. Examples include computer-readable media encoded with a datastructure and computer-readable media encoded with a computer program.Computer-readable media includes physical computer storage media. Astorage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, FLASH, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage, semiconductor storage, or other storagedevices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired programcode in the form of instructions or data structures and that can beaccessed by a computer; disk and disc, as used herein, includes compactdisc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD),floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

In addition to storage on computer-readable storage medium, instructionsand/or data may be provided as signals on transmission media included ina communication apparatus. For example, a communication apparatus mayinclude a transceiver having signals indicative of instructions anddata. The instructions and data are configured to cause one or moreprocessors to implement the functions outlined in the claims. That is,the communication apparatus includes transmission media with signalsindicative of information to perform disclosed functions. At a firsttime, the transmission media included in the communication apparatus mayinclude a first portion of the information to perform the disclosedfunctions, while at a second time the transmission media included in thecommunication apparatus may include a second portion of the informationto perform the disclosed functions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of crowdsourcing on a mobile device,comprising: performing, by the mobile device, at least one wireless scanfor transceiver signals; determining, by the mobile device, at least onelocation of the mobile device; identifying, by the mobile device, atleast one transient signal and an at least one associated transceiveridentifier; and uploading to a crowd source server, by the mobiledevice, the at least one location of the mobile device, a timeassociated with the at least one wireless scan, and the at least oneassociated transceiver identifier.
 2. The method of crowdsourcing ofclaim 1, wherein each scan of the at least one wireless scan fortransceiver signals is associated with one of the at least one locationof the mobile device.
 3. The method of crowdsourcing of claim 1, whereinidentifying the at least one transient signal and the at least oneassociated transceiver identifier comprises: analyzing a plurality ofscans of the at least one wireless scan; determining that a plurality oflocations of the at least one location of the mobile device are within athreshold distance of each other; and determining that at least onesignal is detected in at least one of the plurality of scans, determinedat the plurality of locations, and is not detected in at least one ofthe plurality of scans, determined at the plurality of locations.
 4. Themethod of crowdsourcing of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least onetransient signal and the at least one associated transceiver identifiercomprises: determining an indication of distance between a mobileterrestrial transceiver and the mobile device and an indication ofapproximate direction of the mobile terrestrial transceiver; anddetermining consistency between the indication of distance between themobile terrestrial transceiver and the mobile device, the indication ofapproximate direction of the mobile terrestrial transceiver, and apredicted location and a heading of a mobile terrestrial transport basedon known route information.
 5. The method of crowdsourcing of claim 1,wherein identifying the at least one transient signal and the at leastone associated transceiver identifier comprises: receiving a basestation almanac; and determining that the at least one transient signalis identified in the base station almanac as a transient signal.
 6. Amobile device for crowdsourcing, comprising: one or more processingunits; and a wireless transceiver coupled to the one or more processingunits; and configured to: perform at least one wireless scan fortransceiver signals; determine at least one location of the mobiledevice; identify at least one transient signal and an at least oneassociated transceiver identifier; upload the at least one location ofthe mobile device, a time associated with the at least one wireless scanand the at least one associated transceiver identifier.
 7. The mobiledevice of claim 6, wherein each scan of the at least one wireless scanfor transceiver signals is associated with a location of the at leastone location of the mobile device.
 8. The mobile device of claim 6,wherein the one or more processing units configured to identify the atleast one transient signal and the at least one associated transceiveridentifier comprise the one or more processing units configured to:analyze a plurality of scans of the at least one wireless scan;determine that a plurality of locations of the at least one location ofthe mobile device are within a threshold distance of each other; anddetermine that at least one signal is detected in at least one of theplurality of scans, determined at the plurality of locations, and is notdetected in at least one of the plurality of scans, determined at theplurality of locations.
 9. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein the oneor more processing units configured to identify the at least onetransient signal and the at least one associated transceiver identifiercomprise the one or more processing units configured to: determine anindication of distance between a mobile terrestrial transceiver and themobile device and an indication of approximate direction of the mobileterrestrial transceiver; and determine consistency between theindication of distance between the mobile terrestrial transceiver andthe mobile device, the indication of approximate direction of the mobileterrestrial transceiver, and a predicted location and a heading of amobile terrestrial transport based on known route information.
 10. Themobile device of claim 6, wherein the one or more processing unitsconfigured to identify the at least one transient signal and the atleast one associated transceiver identifier comprise the one or moreprocessing units configured to: receive a base station almanac; anddetermine that the at least one transient signal is identified in thebase station almanac as a transient signal.
 11. A means forcrowdsourcing on a mobile device, comprising: means for performing atleast one wireless scan for transceiver signals; means for determiningat least one location of the mobile device; means for identifying atleast one transient signal and an at least one associated transceiveridentifier; and means for uploading the at least one location of themobile device, a time associated with the at least one wireless scan andthe at least one associated transceiver identifier.
 12. The means forcrowdsourcing on a mobile device of claim 11, wherein each scan of theat least one wireless scan for transceiver signals is associated with aone of the at least one location of the mobile device.